Samurai Sharpening Service

Dull blades make a dull home. Time to cook for the guests you have coming in two hours, and your knives just can't cut it. How many expensive knife blocks have I seen in client's homes, and when was the last time they were sharpened? Not recently, if ever. The solution? The Samurai Sharpening Service, //www.nytimes.com/2004/04/07/dining/07STUF.html">reported in today's Times, is a one woman business (Margery Cohen) that you can visit or have visit you at home. $2 to $5 per blade, with a housecall minimum of $150.

Email: margery@ix.net.com

Whetting More Than Appetites at Chelsea Market

Margery Cohen looks even less like a samurai than Tom Cruise does. But on Wednesdays and Saturdays from noon to 6 p.m. at the Samurai Sharpening Service, in front of Bowery Kitchen Supplies at Chelsea Market, 75 Ninth Avenue (15th Street), she can tackle your dullest kitchen and garden tools.

Ms. Cohen, who worked in the fish business in New Jersey and San Francisco (she wanted a job that required no dressing up), took over the business from a Japanese-American woodworker who taught her to sharpen, then left for Hawaii. She does not grind the blades with a wheel, which can wear them down, but by hand with a diamond stone, charging $2 to $5 a blade, depending on size. She will make house calls, $150 minimum, so you might want to gather friends. She can be reached at 917.375.5978 or margery@ix.net.com.